Celebration of Black Men

March 5, 2018

Tom Block, founding producer of the International Human Rights Art Festival joins Bob Lee for a preview of the event designed to celebrate poetry, nature, beauty, and black men., which took place on March 12 at the off-Broadway Davenport Theater in NYC’s Theater District.

Celebration of Women

in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt

and the 70th anniversary of the United Nation Declaration of human rights

December 10, 2017

NYU Broadcast Journalist student Hannah Foley made a beautiful short reportage about our celebration on the 70th anniversary of the issuing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "A Celebration of Women's Power," in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt, who was chair of the drafting committee for the document. Featuring Rachael Sage, Dancing Georgina Project, Marni Rice and Xiomara Evans.

THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ART FESTIVAL'S "PROLOGUE TO PROGRESS," IN CONJUNCTION WITH the CULTURE PROJECT

October 15, 2017 at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn, NY

Banned by His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan from performing as planned at St. Mary's Catholic Church

The International Human Rights Art Festival is based in inclusion, honesty and sincerity - and brings together artists who will stand proudly before an audience and open their hearts, exposing their struggle in whatever arena they feel most challenged. "The idea that some of us would go forward while others were rejected is antithetical to our mission, our belief and frankly, our faith - respect does not stop at the doorway to one or another segment of the population," said Producer Tom Block

Father Bernárd Lynch, an out gay Catholic priest persecuted by the Archdiocese of New York for his gay rights and AIDS work in the 1970s and ‘80s, wrote in an email from Ireland: "The news regarding Cardinal Dolan’s rejection of this most recent event with Kathleen Turner and others over LGBTQ content is no different. They still hate us. They hate who we are and how we love. Living or dying, my Church simply cannot accept us as co-equals in God’s image. What a disgrace. Thirty years later, we have marriage both here, in the land of my birth, and in New York, the land of my spiritual birth. The Church institutionally still spells death to us. What kind of God do they believe in?"

“I feel fortunate in that I am not beholden to a spiritual structure that tells me who is worthy of a voice and protection, and who is not,” the producer commented. “We believe that all people share this right—we will not pick and choose among our acts or our issues, allowing some while rejecting others.“

Inaugural INTERNATIONAL Human Rights Art Festival

March 3-5, 2017 at Dixon Place, NY

Here is the documentary of our first full Festival, held at Dixon Place in New York's Lower East Side. We had 50 events presenting more than 150 artists and performers over the weekend, and including welcome videos from Norman Lear and Senator Charles E.

"'Activist artists are not the center of the American culture, but we’re at the center of the American soul,' Block says. The artists involved echo Block’s passionate belief in activist art as an essential core of both who we are as Americans and what we aspire to become as we continue to build towards an ideal society."-- Pirronne Yousefzadeh

"The fight for human rights doesn’t end with the festival. Organizers hope people come out of the festivities inspired into activism of their own. Block says, 'If everybody in that room tonight did one more thing, there would be a lot more things happening in terms of fighting or struggling or dreaming of a better, more gentle world.'"

“I look at Donald Trump as the representation of a human energy that goes back to the beginning of time. He’s not an individual. He’s a representation of fear. He’s a representation of human tribalism. These kind of ideas go back to the caveman, so I feel very strongly that … positive energy becomes part of the reverse movement.”